Military warns about restlessness

Military warns about restlessness

JAKARTA (JP): A senior military official acknowledges a growing restlessness and impatience on some parts of society over national development, a new phenomenon which could have a serious impact on national unity.

Maj. Gen. Syarwan Hamid, assistant to the Armed Forces (ABRI) chief for social-political affairs, told a discussion on sectarian politics here yesterday that the restlessness and impatience may be shared by many more people.

"All of us are actually restless and impatient, too, because we think -- how come the nation only achieved this much after fifty years of independence?" he said. "Why isn't all of the national development a picture of success?"

He pointed out that it is not the restlessness and impatience that mattered so much. Instead, what is important is how people channel their feelings in a constructive, not destructive, manner.

He acknowledged that Indonesia was "late" in starting its development effort, a condition brought about by various factors, including the communist uprising in the 1960s.

"Late as it was, we couldn't move and develop straight away," he said. Instead, the country had to build order in various spheres in life.

"We have to first put order into ideology, politics, economics, social cultural or security and defense, which were destroyed by the communist uprising and political experimentation during the previous era," he said.

The discussion was part of a two-day national symposium on Islam and various related subjects, held by the Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI) concurrently with its second congress.

Syarwan and former minister of environment Emil Salim spoke about sectarian politics. Both men discussed the mushrooming of new mass organizations in the past several months, which some analysts charged was inspired by the wish of some parties in society to challenge the increasingly influential ICMI.

"The establishment of those new organizations, I feel, is an expression of that restlessness and impatience," he said.

He pointed out that the trend could have either positive or negative impacts. The establishment of new organizations is positive if viewed from the perspective of "dynamics of democracy", he said.

He said that the trend was in line with the Constitution, and "constructive and positive as well for the national development".

The trend may be educational for the nation. However, it can also have a negative impact, he said.

"Politically, the trend has the potentials to give birth to sectarianism, while socially and culturally it can strengthen 'primordialism'", he said. "Sectarianism and primordialism are the main cause of disintegration."

He called for all parties in society to be alert and prevent disintegration. "ABRI calls for it, for the sake of the national unity only," he said. "Unity is the commitment of ABRI".

He acknowledged that the stance of ABRI over the quest for national unity and integration has its own risk, especially in this time of "information and globalization openness".

"ABRI has often been forced to endure embarrassment, because its commitment toward unity is viewed by some parties as an inability to face differences of opinion," he said.

ABRI's call for the public to care about the national stability and resilience is viewed as a drive to stifle creativity and dynamics, or to maintain the status quo, he said.

"For me, these views prove that ... our vision and orientations are not entirely the same," he said. "As a result, the means we want to use to meet the commitment cannot be totally unified".

Through the implementation of its "dual function" concept, which sees ABRI as both a security and a social-political force, ABRI sees Indonesia's unity as the presence of all of its components.

"If there's one ethnic group less here, it's not Indonesia. If there's one political grouping less here, it's not Indonesia. If there's one religious group less here, it's not Indonesia," he said.

"ABRI is of the principle that the whole is strong because of its strong components, and parts or components should not be strong for themselves either, they should be strong for the sake of the national strength," he said. (swe)

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